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Europe and the New World. Background  The Europeans were not ignorant of the outside world  Marco Polo travelled to China and opened up the spice trade.

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Presentation on theme: "Europe and the New World. Background  The Europeans were not ignorant of the outside world  Marco Polo travelled to China and opened up the spice trade."— Presentation transcript:

1 Europe and the New World

2 Background  The Europeans were not ignorant of the outside world  Marco Polo travelled to China and opened up the spice trade  Christian knights went to the middle east to combat Islam  Moors in Spain  By the Renaissance, Europe was actively trading with much of the known world  However, North and South America and the Islands in the Pacific were unknown to Europeans because none were accessible by land  However, as time passed, European society became more advanced.  New ship building technology allowed the Europeans to venture further than ever before  Also, the 15 th century was far different than the Medieval Period, people were not dominated by Catholic dogma and modern business practices were developing (banks and merchant traders in Italy)

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4 The Caravel: Portuguese ship, gave birth to the age of discovery

5 The Contributions of Portugal  The Portuguese developed the first European ships capable of long oceanic travel  They were first based on the designs of fishing boats, but were steadily improved  Prince Henry (The Navigator) made this all happen  Wishing to gain access to the spice trade, Prince Henry Established a school in Portugal dedicated to Ship Building, Navigation and Map Making  Prince Henry sponsored voyages down the coast of West Africa – were the Portuguese were made rich trading for Gold and Slaves  Vasco Da Gama, led an expedition around South Africa into India – further opening European access to the spices and fabrics of Asia

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8 Christopher Columbus  Born in Genoa Italy as Cristoforo Colombo, in 1451, Columbus was a self-educated and ambitious man who was fascinated with navigation and exploration  He understood that the Earth was spherical (but so did most educated Europeans by this point)  But we wildly underestimated the size of the planet – he believed that the distance from the canary islands to Japan to be approx 3700 km (in fact, it is almost 20,000 km!)  Columbus planned a voyage to prove his theories correct and travelled Europe looking for sponsorship  After being rejected several times, Queen Isabella of Spain finally sponsored him  With three ships, a vast crew and provisions, Columbus set sail west into the unexplored Atlantic ocean in 1492

9 The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria

10 The Impact of Columbus  Columbus landed on the Island of Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti)  He soon realized he had discovered something completely unknown to Europeans (a new World)  He took what he could (people, animals, plants) as evidence of his discovery and set back to Europe  A massive chain reaction followed, Columbus was sent out again to further explore the New World  England and France to a Northern Route discovered North America  Spain took a southern route and discovered South America  Motivated by the loss of power and prestige from the reformation, the Pope issued a “Papal Bull” and demanded that all new peoples were to be ruled by Christian Kings  Finally, the new economic theory of Mercantilism developed (the wealth of the world was fixed, in order to generate wealth, you had to discover new sources or take from someone else)  These new discoveries and Mercantilism soon led to bitter rivalries between European powers

11 Summary  The Portuguese were the first European oceanic explorers  The opened up trade routes to India and Africa  Columbus’ voyage was based in mathematical error  The New World was discovered by accident but all of Europe wanted to exploit its wealth  Papal Bull dehumanized the people of the New World  The Theory of Mercantilism helped create the system of exploitation

12 Homework  Read all the Columbus articles on the Web Page  Prepare to debate the question: “Was Columbus a Hero or a Villain?”


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